Logos, and Websites, and Legal, Oh My

I've spent the majority of this week going through the process of starting up my business.   So many little steps to complete before the whole thing is legal.

On Wednesday, I drove into Boston to have my first "business lunch" with a friend of mine who used to be a graphic designer (a little shout-out to his current business, Swamp Rabbit Books).  He'd offered to design a logo for me, so we met up to chat about what I wanted.  And I have to say, the guy works damn quickly.  Within an hour and a half of finishing lunch, he already had a design emailed to me.  And before the day was done we'd decided on the rough final design.

Thursday was website day.  I used to know some very basic HTML, but it's been so long, and my knowledge was so limited to begin with, that there's no way I could design a website.  Luckily, there are plenty of design tools for website newbs like me, and another friend pointed me towards one that was nice and simple (another shout-out to that friend at Audio Masons, who has been giving me tons of advice about starting a business).  There's a big learning curve for the whole process, and I spent all of Thursday tweeking the site.  It still needs some work, but I'll share it as soon as it's ready.

Then there's the process of making the business legal, getting it registered with the state.  Do I go with a "sole proprietorship" or a "limited liability company"?  I went with the former for now.

All in all, it's been a very productive week.  Sadly... I haven't even touched the Rosetta Stone.

Maybe I should do that right now...

Small Business Euphoria

Hey, remember how I was having fairly regular career-induced hives?

As it turns out, I thought of the solution almost 3 years ago.  I'd just forgotten.

Back in 2009, I had an idea.  It was, in fact, the idea that had me rushing out to buy PVC and moving blankets to build The Pod (1.0).  People have brilliant ideas all the time, and sometimes the only thing holding them back from making those ideas a reality... is a job that keeps them busy 40+ hours a week.

That, and insecurity.

Well, now that I'm free of the radio grind, and I've got my lovely fiance rooting me on, I'm going for it.  More details will follow soon enough, but I'm spending much of my time these days looking into the details of starting my own business.  A business that I can do from anywhere in the world.

Funny how some of the smallest details of starting a business seem so daunting in the beginning.  Just coming up with a company name with a corresponding (and available) web domain name was surprisingly stressful.

I'm beyond excited to get this whole thing moving, and equally excited to share it with everyone (once all of the details are hammered out).

I've also already got a plan for The Pod 3.0.  It looks like this:

And it's portable!

Also, in case you're worried that I'm slacking on my Danish... I sort of am.  But, I have a fabulous to-do list that my fiance worked up that includes working on my Rosetta Stone three times this week.  One session down, two to go.

Also on the to-do list?  Three trips to this hotel's hot tub.  He's a slave driver, that fiance of mine.